The Nick Atoms are saddened to learn of the death of actor Gary Coleman at the age of 42. Thanks for the laughs, Mr. Coleman. You will be missed. We shall play your anthem loud enough to reach the heavens.

Before the end, there was a beginning. Before we played our last show at MarsCon, we played our first show at MarsCon, and from this show, our first album was born.

Rescued from the sands of time — Dr. Ted Nelson appears to possess the only functional copy — is our first album, Live Beyond Mars. The tracks on this album are from the live recording of our show at MarsCon 2001 — for better or for worse. Released at CONvergence 2001, the album was produced in a limited quantity of 30 units and was thought lost.

Now you can possess this most rare of The Nick Atoms recordings. Witness Dr. Ted Nelson’s impatience at Wyngarde’s improvisation! Hear Coburn mispronouncing his robotic brother’s name as “Winegarde”! Thrill to early versions of songs that would get a proper recording later! You can also hear a bonus version of “Jet Jaguar”.

All of this can be found on our music page. Want to download the complete album? Get it on the album downloads page. In either case, prepare to be transported… BEYOND MARS!

Thanks to all the fans who cheered us on. HUGE thanks to Carrie, Luke, Ian, Tim, Tom, Chris W., Chris M., Brian, Katja, John Allen, Mike and Karen. With your help, we pulled off a spectacular show with little to no rehearsal with you guys. Your professionalism and willingness to help made this our best show ever. What a way to go out. THANK YOU ALL!

Our reunion/final show is happening on Friday, March 5 at MarsCon 2010. We have plans to videotape this show since it will be our last; however, we can only cover so much of the action. This is where you can help.

If you have a device for recording video — camcorder, digital camera, iPhone, superhuman painting speed — please consider bringing it to our show and recording at least a portion of our performance. The format or quality doesn’t matter. What we want is your perspective on the show. Creativity is encouraged; we’ll have the wide shots covered, so closeups and reaction shots of the audience are what we really need. After the show, contact us via the web site so we can arrange a way to acquire your footage.

We hope some of you will seize this opportunity to help us capture this event.

We’ve just added more free music to The Nick Atoms Historical Society! The EP Stop Boring Music! brings to you some of the last music recorded by The Nick Atoms in 2005. The songs were recorded and sent to local radio stations to drum up interest in the band. Did it work? Well, our cover of “Believe It Or Not” did inspire a local music show to do an episode dedicated to covers by local bands.

You get “Sidewalker”, the song we performed on the TV show “Strictly Original”; you get a new recording of “Cathy!” with a more, eh, forceful ending; you get the ode to fairground carnival rides gone wrong, “Tornado”; you get the aforementioned “Believe It Or Not”, the theme song to TV’s The Greatest American Hero; you get the start and stop filled version of “Land Of The Lost”.